Tribbett takes a "Stand" for gospel music
By Deborah Evans Price
NASHVILLE (Billboard) - A few years ago, Tye Tribbett made a decision to forgo a lucrative career working with music stars like Faith Hill, Don Henley and Elton John to answer God's call in the gospel music arena.
That decision is paying off, as Tye Tribbett & G.A.'s new Columbia album, "Stand Out," debuts at No. 1 this week on Top Gospel Albums and at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 with 26,000 first-week U.S. sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan. (Tribbett's 2006 "Victory Live!" topped the Gospel Albums chart, but this is his strongest showing yet on the main album chart.)
Tribbett and his choir, Greater Anointing, first gained national attention in 1998 on "The Prince of Egypt (Inspirational)" soundtrack that accompanied the animated DreamWorks film. "That led to us going on tour with Faith Hill, Don Henley, Luther Vandross and Elton John," Tribbett recalls. "Then we started working with hip-hop artists and we became the background singers for everybody."
But Tribbett says some of the music was contradicting the gospel message that he felt called to spread. So he asked the members of his choir to commit totally to gospel music for one year.
"I said, 'This is going to hurt us for a little while financially, but we're going to trust God at least for a year and do music that promotes his ways.' So that year we pulled out of secular music, and 'Victory' came out and blew our minds," Tribbett says of the success of his sophomore album.
"Stand Out" features a guest appearance by Kim Burrell on "He Has Made Me Glad," and Kierra "Kiki" Sheard lends her vocals to "Look Up." The latter tune started as an interlude on 2004's "Life" album before Tribbett decided to flesh it out for the new project.
The album was recorded live at Rock Church International in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Plans call for a live DVD of the recording to be released this fall.
"The D.C./Baltimore/Virginia area loves our music," Tribbett says. "With the 'Victory' album, we were in that area once every two weeks, and every time we went to Virginia, there was an overwhelming response."
Reuters/Billboard
